Anti-democrats and their entrepreneurialism

Police seized weapons and drugs at the house of a former mayor on Saturday as part of a stepped-up crackdown on influential figures and narcotics on Phuket island.

Crime Suppression Division (CSD) and Tourist Police officers raided nine locations on the southern resort island but their main target was a house in Tambon Rassada in Muang district. It is owned by Surathin Lien-udom, a well-known former mayor known locally as Ko Seng.

They sealed off the three-storey house … with [s]pecial forces … called in for backup before the police raided the house and caught the last person hiding in the ceiling on the ground floor. He was identified as Jompol Siriwan, 55, an elder brother of the former mayor’s wife, who worked for Ko Seng.

Police found and seized a .22 calibre rifle, .45 calibre pistol and seven bullets, three samurai swords, 10 grammes of crystal methamphetamine, three grammes of heroin, four ecstasy pills and 17 grammes of marijuana. Also seized were books recording financial transactions of drug clients and football gamblers….

Ko Seng was not in the house but Pol Col Pantana said he would be summoned for interrogation as police would try to establish links between him and those arrested….

Ko Seng was once the chairman of an entertainment operators’ association in Phuket.

Why is this interesting? It is this sentence:

He [Ko Seng] was also one of the leaders of the early protests in Phuket in late 2013, allied with the movement led by former Democrat Party strongman Suthep Thaugsuban, that led to the ouster of the government of Yingluck Shinawatra.

It has long been noted that the Democrat Party has alliances with “dark influences” or “chao phor” in the south. Suthep is sometimes referred to as a “godfather” in the south and has been involved in some deals that raise questions. His sleazy business deals go back to the 1990s.